Monday, April 27, 2009

Bernstein’s Workroom Will Head to Indiana

By Daniel J. Wakin

Published: March 9, 2009 NYTimes

Leonard Bernstein’s children have donated the carefully preserved contents of his main composing studio to Indiana University, which has promised to recreate the space. The items run from the deeply meaningful to the banal. They include Bernstein’s stand-up composing table; a conducting stool that may have been used by Brahms, given as a gift by the Vienna Philharmonic; an electric pencil sharpener; a telephone; an ashtray and disposable lighters; 39 Grammy-nomination plaques; and a piece of the Berlin Wall. (Bernstein conducted an international orchestra in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony near site of the wall shortly after it was taken down.) more